Fourteen years
by bluegrey156
Summary: It was fourteen years ago that the particle excelerator exploded and Barry and Caitlin are the only two members of team flash left.


Speed and cold are opposites and as they say opposites attract.

Walking through the halls of Star Labs these days was like walking down a lane of memories. Over there was where the Reverse Flash held his secret operation and there was the pipeline where we held the metahumans.

Things are very different now, a team that used the consist of five people now held two, Barry and Caitlin. Cisco had died years ago and so had Iris a few years after that. When they had passed Ralph had left and they too had talked about leaving this life behind, but that wasn't what Iris and Cisco would have wanted, and neither had Barry or Caitlin.

It was now fourteen years after the particle accelerator had gone off, and Barry and Caitlin had barely aged at all, most likely due to their powers.

Barry was lost in thought looking at his suit when Caitlin entered the cortex.

"I got you a coffee," she said holding one of the two in her hands out to him.

"Thanks Cait."

"What's on your mind, you look bothered."

"Nothing new, I just miss them, I mean it gets easier with time, but…"

"It's still hard," Caitlin finishes for him.

Barry nods and takes a sip of the coffee.

"So where's Nora?" She was now four years old, having lost her mother at the age of two she grew to adored her father more than anything.

"I just dropped her off at daycare, although I have no clue how they can keep up with her, she's starting to get faster," Barry smiles and shakes his head a little, "that little speedster."

The metahuman alert app blares on the computer screen.

"There's a meta downtown, I should go check it out." He speeds off.

There had been a hole in his heart when Iris had died and as time passed he started to realize that the hole was healing. Although Barry had and will always love her, he couldn't help but realize that she wasn't the only one he loved. Cait. Barry smile at the thought of her.

"Barry!" Caitlin said in his ear.

Barry stops running, worried. "What is it? Did something happen?"

"You overshot about three blocks, something on you mind?"

 _Yes, you are_ , he wanted to say.

"No sorry I just hadn't noticed," was all he said instead.

Hours later they had put away the meta and were now sitting on the training room floor.

"Remember that time we went to that bar and sang 'Summer Nights'" Barry asks.

"Of course I remember, how could I ever forget the first time I heard you sing?"

Barry raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, okay yes I was very drunk, but I mean it was pretty hard to forget the night."

Barry smiles, "yeah it was pretty great."

"So what about it?"

"What about what?"

"You asked if I remembered that night, were you going to something to that?"

"I was just thinking about it."

They both go silent for a moment.

"I kind of wish we were outside," Caitlin says.

And suddenly they were.

Surprised she looks over at him.

"Sorry was that no what you meant, because I could bring us back inside."

"No this is what i meant."

They were sitting on the roof of Star Labs, of all places. It was dark outside and the stars were shining brightly above the city lights.

"Wow," Caitlin says. "The stars are gorgeous and their… falling."

Barry's head snapped up to look at the sky. "What, really?" that wasn't supposed to happen, but then of course weirder things have.

Caitlin laughs, "no it's snowing, I just wanted to see you reaction."

"Are you doing this?" Barry says in amazement.

" _This?_ God no i'm not _that_ good."

Barry wasn't quite sure about that, she was pretty incredible. "Just making sure."

"What's on your mind Barry Allen?"

He looks over at her, but she was looking up at the snow fall. "What? Noth-"

"And before you say 'nothing,' I know something is bothering you, you seem distant." she looks over at him. "So what is it what's going on?"

Barry watches her for a moment, so beautiful with snowflakes in her hair and on her eyelashes. He leans over and kisses her.

Of course they've kissed twice before, but neither time had counted, considering the first was Everyman disguised as Barry and the second was Killer Frost trying to freeze him to death.

This was so so much better than that. The last one was freezing to death, it was cruel ice and frostbites. But this one, this one was warming in front of a fire after being out in the cold for hours, this was true happiness and wonder, it was all he could have imagined and more.

She pulls away and searches his face, silent.

"That," Barry says breathlessly. "That is what was on my mind."

Cait smiles and kisses Barry back. The snow falling softly around them, melting as it hit their skin.

"I should have done this so much sooner," Barry says.

Caitlin puts a hand on Barry's cheek and says, "I'm glad it took this long, things would have been so much different if we'd done this years ago, and I don't want anything to ever be different from right now."

And there they sat, on the roof of Star labs overlooking the city lights and the stars shining high above. The snow falls around them as they make up for all the lost years.


End file.
